Put aside for a moment the shock headlines applauding, or lamenting, the apparent success of the UK Independence party in last week's county elections. Consider instead the potential for either confusion or chaos in hung councils from Cambridgeshire to Lincolnshire, East Sussex to Norfolk, where Ukip holds the balance. Refreshingly policy-free in local government, or alarmingly ill-prepared?

Is this assortment of innocents, community champions, retreaded Tories, and – yes – xenophobes, prepared for the realities of institutions approaching financial crisis in England's confusing patchwork of local government?

Twenty-seven counties, including Kent, Cumbria, Lancashire and North Yorkshire, retain a two-tier structure, with an array of district councils below them – some barely able to make ends meet – providing functions such as refuse collection and housing.

Six other counties that faced elections last week, including Shropshire, Wiltshire and Northumberland, converted before the last general election to full unitary status, whereby one single authority delivers all services.

The last government's decision to arbitrarily authorise unitary councils in some areas made no sense. Communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles may instinctively reject the prospect of another round of reorganisation, but financial necessity is driving some senior officials to one conclusion: counties are heading for a shakeup by necessity, if not by design. The warning signs are there. At a recent seminar of senior local government figures , many agreed that some district councils were now solely preoccupied with balancing diminishing finances to stay afloat.

Tory-run West Somerset, facing bankruptcy last year with annual losses of £100,000, is not alone. It is on course to cut administration to the bone and become a skeleton authority by sharing services with another district. Others are heading down the same route. Late last year the Audit Commission reported "financial stress" among a sizeable minority of councils, with an alarming 12% representing an "ongoing risk".

Nationally, necessity is proving the mother of innovation. Radical proposals from the Local Government Association are expected by July. The proposals will push the case for town halls to pool funding, devolved from Whitehall, for a broad range of public-sector services – from skills and training to adult social care and measures to reduce reoffending. This model of community budgeting, which could save £4bn annually, is being tested in four areas of England.

Time is not on the side of the LGA and others who argue for a new relationship between councils and sections of government that seem to treat local authorities with disdain rather than respect.

In the meantime, some of those 147 new Ukip councillors will have to grapple with the realities of power-broking and budget-setting, rather than EU-bashing, with deeper spending cuts hitting county halls in George Osborne's next comprehensive spending review and then right up to 2018. With power comes responsibility. But can they wield it?